Foster care abuse ‘very, very troubling’

Gov to meet with DCF after shocking report

Matt Stout, Jack EncarnacaoWednesday, December 04, 2013

Credit: Angela Rowlings

Gov. Deval Patrick. (Angela Rowlings file photo)

Gov. Deval Patrick called a scathing new report showing children in foster care were abused and neglected a “very, very troubling” problem that needs fixing — even as his child welfare officials defended the program.

Patrick said he plans to sit down with the Department of Children and Families to see “whether we’re moving in the right direction” to protect Bay State foster kids.

“I celebrate and thank foster families for doing what they do for children in need, but obviously we’ve got to be quite a bit more rigorous in the screening,” said Patrick, who called the report “very, very troubling, particularly the stats about the number of children who had been harmed who were in foster care.”

The Herald reported yesterday the Office of the Child Advocate found reports supporting 249 allegations of abuse and neglect of children in “out-of-home” settings in 2012. Thirty percent of those — or roughly 70 instances — involved children in foster care, a higher percentage than schools, day cares and treatment programs under state supervision.

DCF officials said Commissioner Olga Roche was not available for an interview yesterday, but agency spokeswoman Cayenne Isaksen defended how they select foster parents, including requirements of fingerprint and background checks, home visits and “extensive training.”

“The Department has a rigorous screening process for prospective foster parents ...” Isaksen said in an email. “The Department of Children and Families continues to amend and adapt our policies and practices, replicating national best practices, in order to best serve our children and families.”

But attorneys and child advocates said the data highlighted a history of failed promises and ongoing problems.

“We have to wake up here,” said Laurie Myers, the founder of Community Voices, a victim advocacy group. “There has to be an independent look at our foster system.”

Wendy Murphy, a lawyer and victim advocate, pointed to the 2005 case of Haleigh Poutre — the then-11-year-old who was allegedly beaten into a coma by her adoptive parents while under state supervision — as an example of a horrific case in which the state vowed changes.

“And that is the issue: They (the public) get a promise and a commitment and nothing happened. Maybe they’ll say to you they did change something, but the data is pretty disturbing,” said Murphy, who represented Poutre’s biological mother. “To see these numbers, everybody who was cynical back then over whether these promises will prove true were actually correct.”